The Dwarka Expressway, also known as the Northern Peripheral Road (NPR) Expressway, has hit yet another roadblock.
Construction work had started picking up pace in Gurgaon region with Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) allotting the project to real estate firm Indiabulls last month.
But plans to get the inter-state road project ready by October 2012 may fail to meet the deadline as a three-kilometre long stretch connecting with Bijawasan Road in Delhi is far from completion.
Nearly 1.8 kilometre area in Gurgaon is embroiled in litigation over land acquisition while the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has not even started construction on its side to connect the NPR stretch with Dwarka.
As a result, commuters would not be able to make use of this ambitious project to travel between Delhi and Gurgaon as an alternate link even if the Gurgaon portion is ready in the stipulated time.
Asking their Delhi counterparts to get moving on the project, senior Huda officials met DDA officials last Thursday and urged them to expedite construction of a 80-metre wide and eight-kilometre long sector road to connect with the NPR Expressway coming from Gurgaon. The Huda delegation was led by administrator Nitin K Yadav while principal commissioner Deepak Trivedi led the DDA group of officers.
The 150-metre wide Dwarka Expressway is likely to be completed within 18 months by October 2012.
{{/usCountry}}The 150-metre wide Dwarka Expressway is likely to be completed within 18 months by October 2012.
{{/usCountry}}Indiabulls had bagged the contract for Rs43.32 crore last month.
The DDA, however, has not even conducted a feasibility study of the proposed 80-metre wide road which is going to be an extension of the road cutting through sectors 27 and 28 in Dwarka.
Huda administrator Nitin K Yadav said, "We asked DDA officials to start the process of land acquisition on their side to build the Dwarka road that could be connected to the NPR Expressway. This road is already notified and incorporated in the Delhi Master Plan."
Surprisingly, the proposed NPR Expressway starts from NH-8 in Gurgaon and terminates around 1.8 kilometres ahead of the Delhi-Gurgaon border.
About 1.2 kilometre further, there is no road between the state border and the Bijwasan Road yet as DDA is supposed to construct it.
In the absence of a total three-kilometre road link, the NPR Expressway at present terminates in a field.
According to Huda officials, DDA has assured them that the process for land acquisition would start soon once senior officers return from Assam and West Bengal where they have been sent on election duty.
Yadav said, "The Delhi authorities already had plans to construct the road by extending it through Sector 27 and 28 of Dwarka but because of litigation issues with landowners in some portions, the matter got delayed."